by The pandemic continues to break my heart. Since I started working at the ASPCA I’ve been passing by this store inside the Times Square subway stop, Record Mart. I love it because I’m a nostalgia junkie and they always had great hifi nostalgia displays. So I was very sad to see this note pictured on their shuttered store when I returned to work at the ASPCA Hospital last month. I’m glad that they will continue online, but I will miss their window displays.
Could they really be the oldest record store in Manhattan, as they say in this sign? How is it possible the first opened as late as 1958? Here is their history. Okay, according to a quick search they are not the oldest, no disrespect to Record Mart. The Commodore Music Shop opened in 1935 on 42nd Street. And the Casa Latina del Bronx record store opened in 1951, and moved to a new location in 1955 as Casalegre. Okay, that’s the Bronx, not Manhattan. Anyway, I’m sure there are many contenders. Doesn’t matter. I miss passing Record Mart by and I hope people will shop at their online store.
Here’s a picture of their window that I posted last year.
